The sensitive issue of Israeli settlement construction in the Palestinian West Bank is something that should be "discussed in private," Mitt Romney said in an interview with CNN Monday.

"I believe that the issue of settlements is something which should be discussed in private by the American president and our allies," Romney told Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "When we show diplomatic distance between ourselves and our ally, I think we encourage people who oppose that relationship to seek other means to achieve their ends."

Settlement construction has been one of the most controversial and complicated elements of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, and, by extension, of the U.S.-Israeli one. Early in his term, President Obama described the ever-expanding Israeli construction on land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank that many consider part of a future Palestinian state as "illegitimate," and he later called for a total settlement freeze to allow negotiations to commence. The gambit failed, and ultimately left Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resentful of the intrusion.

Romney has repeatedly dismissed efforts to put pressure on Israel over settlements, or any other issue, as counterproductive. In his foreign policy speech shortly before embarking on the trip to Israel, Romney assailed Obama for putting pressure on the country, accusing the president of contributing to a "chorus of accusations, threats and insults."

"In his remarks at the fundraiser on Monday morning, Romney outraged Palestinians by suggesting that the inherent culture of Israelis was the reason their economy was more developed than the Palestinian one, a notion that discounts years of economic blockade and occupation in the West Bank and Gaza."

"Section III. Occupied territories
Articles 47-78 impose substantial obligations on occupying powers. As well as numerous provisions for the general welfare of the inhabitants of an occupied territory, an occupier may not forcibly deport protected persons, or deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory (Art.49)."

When the Zionists decided in 1897 to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, the Jews of Vienna despatched a delegation to examine the country for its suitability. The delegation reported back as follows: "the bride is beautiful but she is married to another man". They had found that Palestine to their dismay was already inhabited by another people. And this has been Zionisms central problem ever since. How to "vanish the Palestinians" and get an empty land? The latest manifestation of this imperative is the barrier wall, which Israel is currently building to separate and enclose Palestinian towns and villages in the lands it occupied after 1967. There are those who rightly point to the walls illegality and infringement of human rights. And the International Court of Justice has just affirmed this view resoundingly in its ruling, passed on 9.7.04 by 14 of the 15 judges, that the wall was an illegal structure when in the occupied Palestinian territories and that Israel would have to tear it down and make restitution for the damage it has caused to thousands of Palestinians. This position is entirely valid, but critics, in my view, have missed one crucial aspect of the walls purpose, which is, to "vanish" the Palestinians, to make them so invisible that Israelis can go on pretending that there is no "other man".

"Under international law, Israel&#8217;s rule in the West Bank and Gaza is considered 'belligerent occupation' and, therefore, its actions must be justified by military necessity only. If there is no occupation, Israel has no military grounds to hold on to the territories.

"In that case, it must either return the land to the Palestinians, and move out the settlers, or defy international law by annexing the territories, as it did earlier with East Jerusalem, and establish a state of Greater Israel.

"Annexation, however, poses its own dangers. Israel must either offer the Palestinians citizenship and wait for a non-Jewish majority to emerge in Greater Israel; or deny them citizenship and face pariah status as an apartheid state."

What's a good Zionist to do?
Integrate or vanish from the page of time?

In Rafael Medoff's recent op-ed ("The president and the Jews," April 24), he makes two basic contentions. One is that President Barack Obama regards Israel as a "nuisance." The second is that the purveyor of that opinion, Gary Rosenblatt, editor of the Jewish Weekly, may turn out to be like Walter Cronkite in his influence on voters.

Regarding the first assertion as to Mr. Obama viewing Israel as a "nuisance," here is what President Obama has done regarding it: He killed Osama bin Laden. He helped get rid of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. He has funded Israel with more money than any other president in history. And in September of 2011, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly said, "Through your actions, Mr. President, you deserve a badge of honor, and more world leaders should follow your example, Mr President." If he is good enough for Bibi, he is good enough for me.

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